Our Differences
by Light of Night
Summary: Anastasia, a student in Ginny's year, gives the sorting hat a challenge. Dumbledore decides how to solve the situation and it might bring house unity or it could send the school into a war between the houses, how can the houses chose when she's not sure?
1. The Sorting

Finally my name was called. Of course I'm the last to be called, _oh shut up, _I think to myself. Stop complaining, you're just nervous.

I go up to the stool and sit, with my back straight of course. I also make sure to scan the crowd, find out anything I could, before I get placed and people will look at me differently. Now, I could be a part of any of their families so they are all willing to accept me now. Once I am placed mutual hatreds may form. Then the hat is placed on my head and I focus on it.

"Let's see what we have here." There was a pause, "You are difficult, more difficult than what I normally see…" The hat sort of rambled of from there, almost shouting out a house name and then stopping himself. It seemed that whenever it almost called a house, it found a reason not to put me there.

Finally he shouted "HEADMASTER, I NEED TO SPEAK WITH YOU."

The headmaster came over right away. "What is it?" I look up and realize I had been sitting there for quite some time. "Miss, would you mind sitting over with the Gryffindors, whilst I speak with the sorting hat?"

"Of course, Headmaster."

I walk over there, tilting my head slightly so that my bangs fell forward so that no one would see me watching. Everyone seemed to whispering, staring. I probably looked shamed, but people could think all they want. If being part of shadows and ignored for most of my life taught me anything is that you must always watch for the tiny things as well as the large.

Hermione, Neville and Ginny

"What do you think is going on up there?" Ginny whispered to Hermione. Conversations all over the hall had broken out.

"I have no idea; no one's ever not been able to be sorted before."

"Well, the hat has almost sorted her seven times. Twice she was almost put in Gryffindor, once in Hufflepuff, thrice in Ravenclaw and once in Slytherin. And how would you know, you've only been here one year." Said Fred.

"One day you all might read _Hogwarts: A History._" Hermione replied with a sigh.

"She must be terrified; she's been up there for almost five minutes. Yet, she is still sitting there still as stone." said Neville.

"I don't think she has even twitched."

"I hope she is in Gryffindor."

Just then she started walking down toward our table, we had not noticed the headmaster walk over to her, and Neville moved over so she could sit there.

"Hello." she said, as she sat down next to him, noticing the obvious gesture.

"Hey, why didn't the sorting hat call out your house yet?"

"I haven't been sorted yet. The headmaster told me to come sit at the Gryffindor table."

"Oh," said Ginny looking slightly disheartened.

Draco

"What? She hasn't even been sorted, and she's going over to the Gryffindor table." I sneered.

"Yeah, why's it they get all the interesting people." said Goyle.

"Shut it, Golye."

"Draco, why do you care if some brat is sorted into Gryffindor?" asked Pansy, leaning forward.

"I don't."

Dumbledore

"Well, what are we to do? The sorting hat can't find a house for her, so where do we place her?"

"Why don't we let the students and facility decide? She will spend a week or so in each of the houses and at the end of first quarter we will decide which house she shall belong to." Said Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, that's a fine idea, but with the threat of the Chamber being opened as well?"

"We will have to make do, Minerva. She has every right to be here."

"I know she belongs here, but how will we organize this?"

"We will have to let faith take its course."

Hermione, Neville and Ginny

"Oh, where are Harry and Ron?"

"I don't know, Hermione. You've asked that every hour since we got on the train."

"I know. It's just that they missed the train and I'm sure they're going to do something stupid."

"If by stupid, you mean bloody brilliant." said Neville, "I just heard that they flew a car here."

"That is not good!"

Professor McGonagall started down towards them. "Look, Professor McGonagall is coming over."

"Anastasia, would you please come with me?" she asked when she got here.

"Of course, professor." she said and got up gracefully. Seeming to ignore everyone watching her, but of course she was watching everyone just as they were watching her. Professor McGonagall walked her out of the hall, to an office.

The headmaster was waiting for them with another professor. "Ah, hello. We have two students dining in Professor Snape's office and thought you would like to accompany them for now until we figure out your living arrangements." he said with a twinkle in his eye,

"Yes, sir." she said. Anastasia walks into the room, where two boys, maybe a year older than her were talking.

"Hello." she says, startling them. They had been talking about a flying car.

"Hullo." The boy with bright red hair replied and she sat in the chair across the table. "You probably shouldn't sit there, that's Snape's chair."

"They brought me in here and I don't see any reason not to."

"Ok, but he will be really mad if he comes back in here and sees you sitting there. Unless you're in his house, they get away with everything with Snape around."

"Ok, then I don't think I'll get in trouble."

"You're in Slytherin?" he said, coughing up juice.

"I haven't been sorted yet. I'm Anastasia, and you are?" she says, putting a very elegant tone to her words.

"I'm Harry and this is Ron." says Harry, whom had not spoken until then.

"What do you mean, you haven't been sorted? Professor McGonagall said the sorting was over."

"And it is. I just was not." They looked bewildered.

"That doesn't make any sense." Ron said.

"Well, it's true."

"I wonder how that's going to work out."

"So, where are you from?"

"Tandridge." Anastasia didn't like sharing information about herself, at least until she got to know the person, "And you are from?"

"Surrey."

"Devon."

They sat eating in silence for a bit.

"So, what's the school like?"

"It's great here. The classes are really interesting. And the teachers are nice."

"Some." Ron interrupted.

"Well, some aren't all that good. Snape's rotten."

"To anyone not in Slytherin. It really makes you hate him even more."

"What does he teach?"

"Potions."

"You should eat something." Ron said, pointing to the plate and goblet that had appeared.

Anastasia picked a sandwich of the tray then asked, "What's this?" pointing to the jug.

"Pumpkin juice." both boys said at once. She took the jug and filled her goblet.

"That's really good." She said after she drained the goblet.

"Wow, Ron, you've got some competition for the biggest appetite in the school." Harry whispered to Ron, having noted that Anastasia had made both the jug and platter refill at least twice.

"I heard that." Anastasia says, "But I do eat a lot. It's probably not very healthy though."

"Are you kidding? Ron eats twice as much and he's fine."

"OI! I don't eat that much!" says Ron, mock angry.

"Well, we should get to the common room.

"Where do you suppose I should go?"

"I guess you could come with us to the common room, seeing as you might be in Gryffindor."

"Ok." Anastasia had abandoned the hard cold elegant tone of voice for something much more friendlily by this time.

"Come on." They walk down the corridor and to the tower. Anastasia focused on memorizing it along the way. When they got to the doorway, she slipped from her façade a bit.

"There is a _fat lady in a picture guarding your dorm?"_ she asked.

"Of course." Harry said looking confused. "Are you from a wizard family?"

"No, why?"

"Well, the pictures here move." Just then the fat lady asked "Password?"

"Harry, we don't know the password!"

"There you are! Where have you _been?_ The most _ridiculous _rumors - someone said you were expelled for crashing a flying car-"

"We'll we haven't been expelled." Harry assured the girl who had come running up, Hermione.

"You're not telling me you _did _fly here?" she asked.

"Skip the lecture and tell us the new password." said Ron impatiently.

"It's 'wattlebird'" Hermione said impatiently, "but that's not the point-"

Her words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the fat lady swung open and there was a storm of clapping. It looked as if the whole of Gryffindor house was still awake, packed into the circular, standing on the lopsided tabled and squashy armchairs, waiting for them (Harry and Ron) to arrive. Arms reached out to pull Ron and Harry inside, leaving Anastasia and Hermione to scramble in after them. Everyone started shouting at them.

"You should've lectured them and then told them the password."

"I guess, they wouldn't have listened to me anyways. So, they did sort you into Gryffindor?" she asks and Anastasia shakes her head.

"I really don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or where I'm supposed to be."

"Well, we should go up to the dorms to see if there is a bed prepared for you." So, they pushed their way through the crowd, which was difficult, but Ron and Harry were having a much harder time getting to their dorm. The girls climbed the steps to the first year's dorm, and saw four bunks with chests sitting at the end and one without anything at the end of it except the things you would need to stay a night somewhere. Anastasia walked over and picked up a note that was on top of the small bundle. It read:

Dear Anastasia,

If you would like to stay the night here, that would be fine. The Headmaster wishes to see you after breakfast and before your first class tomorrow. You are free to eat with the Gryffindors if you wish.

From, Head of Gryffindor Professor McGonagall.

"I guess I'm bunking the night here." Hermione said Goodbye and went to her dorm, and then the other girls crowded around Anastasia's bunk.

"So you're the girl who wasn't sorted?"

"Hi, I'm Ginny; I meet you when you came over to our table."

"Why don't you think you were sorted?"

"So are you going to stay in Gryffindor?"

Anastasia gave everything a thought and decided how she was going to act.

"Oh, I don't know, but it is interesting don't you think? Being the first person _ever _not to be sorted." She put emphasis on the ever.

"It is interesting. I wonder why you couldn't be sorted."

"Yeah, maybe the Headmaster will explain it all tomorrow. Well, I'm tired, we should get to bed."

The other girls agreed and Anastasia went to change and wash up, she couldn't help but admire how beautifully the rooms were made- probably by magic. Though that almost sounded like cheating, it was every impressive. The detail in everything was so fine, she would have thought it would look more machine made than crafted by skilled hands.

She gave a yawn and shut her curtains around her bed, thinking of how strange tomorrow might be. She then quickly fell asleep on the softest bed she's ever slept in, but her rest was not peaceful.


	2. First, Snakes or Spiders?

The next morning was … interesting, as Anastasia predicted. Hermione met Anastasia in the common room. She hadn't expected anyone being up so early. Anastasia had wanted to get to breakfast and then the Headmaster's office without a lot of commotion, she thought that some people might slow her down for questions, she was after all the first person ever to have not been sorted into a house. Last night had proven that people were curious.

Anastasia's fitful sleep had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was up so early… well that's what she told herself.

Hermione seemed to be mad at Ron and Harry still, continuously talking about how it was an irresponsible and that they could have been killed.

"Why don't you tell them yourself?" she asked, seeing them coming over to the table. Anastasia got up to go to the headmaster's office. "Do you know where the headmaster's office is?" Realizing she didn't know.

"No idea, but the Professors probably do. But you should wait until they finish eating." Anastasia didn't hear the last part, she was already half way to the staff table. The Great Hall, which was about half full, went quite. Because it you were going to watch someone ask a teacher a question you had to be absolutely silent.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where the headmaster's office is?"

"I'll show you." said Professor McGonagall getting up.

"Thank you."

"Yes, I don't know why I didn't tell you where his office was." As Anastasia followed her out of the Great Hall she hear whispers start up, but she ignored them. Instead of worrying about it though, Anastasia was too busy staring at the architecture of the corridors. With the arches every few feet and the extravagant details sculpted into the walls. They almost move on the walls, not needing color to feel alive. Creatures that she never dreamed about. Giant spiders and snakes, centaurs, small creatures, dragons and half bird and half horse things.

"Do we learn about all these?" she traces a burst of fire from a dragon.

"In Care of Magical Creatures class." the Professor not turning.

See, Anastasia loved to flip through books about anything from the structure of buildings to how deep-sea fish can glow. She was excited to learn about the wizard world and compare and contrast differences. She wanted to see how magic related into the "real" world, to see how it would correspond with scientific laws. But she would never tell anyone this, of course. She didn't want or need the extra attention.

Finally, the arrived at the end of a corridor, but it seemed to be a dead-end. There was a rather large gargoyle statue that took up most of the wall. It was an interesting piece, but Anastasia didn't get a chance to study it for it asked "Password?" speeding up her heart quite a bit. Anastasia had so far worked on masking her emotions, being able to look anger when she was happy or normal when she was hurting inside. Being able to tell lies and making sure all her stories matched, even we talking to two people who would never meet.

She did see though that it was simpler than the rest of the castle. "Cherry." replies professor McGonagall and the statue jumped out of the way, revealing a spiral staircase. "The Headmaster's office." and with that she turned right around. Anastasia hesitantly stepped forward onto the first step. The stairs started to move under her feet. _Just like an escalator._ She thought. She walked into the office and looked around in awe. The office was magnificent, with shelves lining the walls, some with books and others with gadgets that she could never dream what they could be used for. The sorting hat sat amongst them and a gorgeous fiery red bird sat on a perch in the middle of the room. There were doors along all the walls, but if her memory stood correct they were in a part of the castle not wide enough for so many rooms to be in one place.

Anastasia was reaching out to the bird, which seemed to ask "Don't you remember me?" when a door to her left snapped open and she jumped back. The Professor she thought to be Snape slinked into the room, looking rather mad. "What are you doing here?" he was practically spitting the words at her face.

"I was asked to be here after breakfast, to speak with Headmaster Dumbledore."

Snape seemed to growl and he sweep around, his cloak bellowing out behind him. It looked as if he practiced his entrances and exits. The Headmaster then emerged from the same doorway.

"Ah, hello. I claim you remember our meeting over the summer? But we're not here to talk about that." he walked over to his desk and Anastasia followed. "We need to find a solution to the fact that you are perfect for each of our houses. This, of course, causes problems to arise. I have devised a way around it though. The houses will decide! You shall be in each house for a select period of time and at the end of the year you will be sorted! Now with the schedule this brings problems as well. You have the choice, either with a change of house your classes will change accordingly or you can keep the same schedule throughout the year. In the second choice you may be in a class with Gryffindors and Slytherins but be a Hufflepuff. Your choice."

"I think I'd like to keep the same schedule."

"Very well. Now we have to decide which house to put you in first." he says, "Shall we ask the Sorting Hat?" He goes over to the shelf with the hat and plucks it up. "Here you are." He put the hat on my head.

_Oh, it's you again. The first student in the history of Hogwarts that I could not sort. I'm the Sorting Hat, I should have been able to! _

_There is a first time for everything, and now, redeem yourself. Sort me now, give me my first house. _

_Of course, you want to me to tell you where to go. No one ever asks me anything else. Tell me what to do, what should I do, what path should I take… Even if they already know the answer, they always know the answer, I just tell them what they already know. _

_Tell me this, tell me what I know but cannot find._

_Fine, you know you should be in Slytherin first. See what the cunning know._

"Slytherin." she practically whispered.

"The house of cunning." he said, taking the hat, "Here is your schedule." waving his wand and a piece of parchment appeared.

"I have potions first." she stated.

"Yes, and you should give this to Professor Snape. He is your Head of house now."

"Yes, thank you, sir."0

"Oh, and I'd think it'd be best if you were in Hufflepuff next quarter." he called out as she shut the door. She was thinking on her way through the corridors, _Loyalty, can get you in trouble, or dead. _She was debating, _yet, it also has it values. _

She had to ask for directions, then went to the dungeons. The lesson had already started when she got there, and professor Snape sneered as she came in.

"So, I presume you're in Gryffindor?"

"Actually, I'm in your house, Professor. Slytherin." she said, smiling slightly, she held out the note. Snape took it and all but ripped it apart as he opened and read it.

"Yes, of course. Take a seat, you are lucky that the class has not gotten far yet. As I was saying, today we will start with a simple potion that is used to cure facial blemishes. Directions are on the board." he waved his wand in the middle of talking and the board filled with complicated looking directions. Anastasia had already sat down next to an extremely pale girl with pale white hair and eyes. It hurt Anastasia's head to look her in the eye because she could barely see her pupils, as they were only slightly darker that the almost translucent white of her eyes. They didn't look ghost like, though, they strangely fit.

"Hello, I'm in Slytherin too. My name's Altaira, Altaira Malfoy."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Anastasia." she looked over to see Ginny whispering franticly into her partner's ear. Both of them looked over at her every now and them, making it obvious that she was the subject of discussion.

"Oh, don't bother with the Gryffindors, they've never gotten along with us, Slytherins. They're too jealous that we are so much more cunning than them, all they've got is bravery and more often than not that comes with stupidity."

"Yeah, well I could still be in Gryffindor, I haven't been truly sorted yet." she says, suddenly angry.

"What?" asks Altaira, looking quite confused. _Her hair turned a different shade of white, maybe with some peach in it_ Anastasia thought. She shook her head, thinking she was seeing things.

"Tell you later." _Argh, I am becoming so girly. _She thought. The rest of the lesson was surprisingly easier than Anastasia first thought it would be. It was almost as if she were in one of her summer Chemistry classes. The main difference was the ingredients. Professor Snape walked around the room criticizing potions, then he came to Anastasia's table.

"Ah, you've brewed the ingredients to the _exact _shade of purple the potion needs to be. Most first years have trouble turning the potion blue, as everyone can see in Weasley's cauldron. It's a bright green, I suspect that you added bat fangs instead of snake?"

"Well, Sir, the containers are right next to each other and there is only a small b or s in front of the word fangs." Ginny states, looking at the two different containers.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Miss Weasley." Some Slytherins were snickering behind cauldrons. Most of her classes from there on were a bore. Most Professors explaining the subject and what they would be going throughout the year. Especially their expectations of all their students. By lunch Anastasia was starving, and rushed to the Great Hall with everyone else. But before she made it into the hall she was cornered by one of the girls that had been in her Gryffindor dorm.

"How could you? I bet you chose Slytherin. I bet you didn't want to be in Gryffindor, did you? You probably think you're so much better than us, huh? You do know that the lion eats the snake?"

"Well, it's not my fault. It's not even permanent, but if this is how Gryffindor treats the other houses I might think Slytherin is better. I wouldn't want to be part of a house that treat another like it's something that needs to be gotten rid of." the girl just stared and Anastasia walked away.

"Salazar Slytherin wanted to get rid of all the other houses, just thought you'd like to know. He's even got a Chamber with a monster in it to do the job for him!" she called after her.

"Anastasia!" someone called and she turned to see who had. Altaira was sitting at the Slytherin table called to Anastasia again. She let out a sigh of relief, she had been wondering where she was going to sit, but it made sense that she would sit with the Slytherins. As Anastasia made her way toward her, Altaira moved her bag to the ground making room for her. "Now, can you tell me what you were talking about in Potions?" she batted her eyes in a jokingly pleading way.

"Sure, I don't see any reason why not to." And she told Altaira and the others listening in what happened. "So, I'm going to be in each house for about a quarter." she finished.

"That's so cool! You know no one's ever not been able to be sorted. You must be really special, having the talents of all four houses."

"Yeah, you're, like, the most interesting person to come to Hogwarts, since Harry, of course." says one of the other girls listening in. She took on a dreamy expression when she mentioned Harry.

"Harry?"

"Why, Harry Potter of course!" she replies, looking shocked.

"You're not telling me that someone doesn't know about the Great Harry Potter?" A long drawl comes from behind Anastasia.

"Hi, Draco." Altaira's voice got about ten degrees colder.

"Ah, aren't you glad to see your big brother?" he mocks. Then he calls out "Hey, Potter! Haven't you heard? There's someone over here who doesn't know you're famous! Wait, it's not a surprise, no one cares." He smirked, "So, who are you? And I thought you had been sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Obviously not, even a blind man could have seen that." Draco's smirk didn't vanish, but faltered a bit.

"Harsh. But you were over there. So how is Potter and the gang? Obnoxious and arrogant as always, I suppose. His father was a delinquent from what I heard, those things run in the family."

"Yeah, well, you can't go five minutes without running to our father. 'Oh, Daddy, someone's been mean to me at school. Get his father thrown in Azkaban because I'm too much of a wimp to do anything about it.'" Altaira mocked. Draco scowled at her.

"Well, I'm Father's favorite."

"Because you'd jump off a cliff without your wand to gain his appreciation." Draco's scowl deepened. He turned back to Anastasia because he already lost that battle.

"So what's your name?"

"Anastasia, now please excuse me while I go vomit. I'm just finishing a conversation with the most hideous thing."

"Huh? I'd be a little nicer to my sister if I were you."

"Really? You're so arrogant that you can't distinguish a weasel from a good person?" She then turns to Altaira, "You are so lucky these things are not genetic." They laughed as Draco stormed away.

"Bye, big brother." she called. "He is so obnoxious. Ever since he got back from Hogwarts last summer all he talks about is Harry this, Harry that. Or his friends Ron and Hermione. He's rather obsessed. Don't tell them though, because I know your friends with them and all. I think I would die of embarrassment if they found out." She pauses, "Sorry about what I said in Potions. I was being way biased and that is what most Slytherins think and I was trying to fit in. I should have thought first before going on what my brother says."

"Nah, it's okay, I just wonder why all the houses don't like each other. And I probably shouldn't have insulted your brother."

"No, it's ok. It was good, you know. And he'll get over it, especially if you end up in Slytherin. I bet you two will be great friends, but for now if he's bugging you I give you my permission to insult him in any way you can think of."

"Oh, now I need your permission?" Anastasia joked, but she didn't think they could be friends. Altaira laughed. They both ate at least two plates of food and drank practically a whole jug of pumpkin juice each. The rest of the day went by in a blur until last class had ended and students were going to their common rooms and Anastasia had no idea where to go. _Maybe I should go to the Gryffindor common room. _She mused, not knowing what else to do. Then Ginny came up to her.

"Hey, Anastasia. I'm sorry about the incident before lunch, if I had known what she going to say I would have tried to stop her. Not all Gryffindors think like that, but what she said about Salazar Slytherin might be true. There's a legend about the Chamber of Secrets that he supposedly created."

"It's okay, thanks. Do you by any chance know where the Slytherin common room is?"

"Sorry, no. Most students don't know where the other house's common rooms are."

"Ok, thanks. I'll go look for another Slytherin. Bye." Anastasia hurries off.

"Anastasia!" Anastasia recognized Altaira's voice. "I went to the common room and waited for a while before realizing that you probably don't know where it is! So I rushed out looking for you."

"Thanks, Altaira."

"Oh, and we should probably get back soon, it's the first day here and we've got a load of homework. Most of it is from Professor Snape, I've heard he's really hard, but Draco says that he goes easy on Slytherins."

"Ok."

"That reminds me. Draco is practically haunting the common room, waiting for you. He is so obsessive, especially about people who insult him."

They continued to discuss trivial things until Anastasia suddenly asked, "Hey, what do you think about the Chamber of Secrets?" she asked suddenly.

"All I know is that it's a legend and that Father sometimes thinks aloud about it. Why?"

"Oh, it's just that someone mentioned it."

"Ok, we're here, and the passwords 'Basilisk' I don't actually know what that is though." She said all this in front of a stretch of bare, damp wall. When she said 'Basilisk' a concealed stone door slid open. The common room had lower ceilings than the Gryffindor's and was longer in a rectangle shape. Greenish lamps hung at even intervals and once you got past the slightly damp and chill of the place it was quite comfortable. Everything was elaborately carved or designed. The furnishings were beautiful, if a little stiff. The only chairs that looked like you could relax in were sitting around the fire with a table in-between them.

"Let's go sit over there." she said, pointing to them.

"Sure." They started to walk over, but were intercepted by Draco.

"So, I see your at least playing the role of Slytherin. For now."

"Leave us alone, Draco." says Altaira, in a tired voice.

"Fine. I see it that you need your beauty rest, you should probably sleep for a good ten years to look decent."

"Shut up." Anastasia pushes past him, dragging Altaira behind her. They got all their work done in a clean hour and spent the next two talking and watching as everyone else went up to their dorms.

"I hope Draco doesn't bother us tomorrow."

"Yeah, it gets pretty annoying after the first minute or so."

"Agreed. Let's go up to bed, we need to keep our minds clear so we can come up with brilliant come backs." Altaira laughed.

"Yeah, it's so much more mind taxing than lessons."

"Do you think my stuff is up there? It wasn't in the dorm at the Gryffindor dorm."

"Well, since you're a Slytherin, at least now, your stuff should be there." And sure enough, when they got to the dorm she says, "That bunk wasn't there before. I bet it's yours!"

"Yeah, well, night." They both got ready for bed in silence and both fell asleep almost at once.

The first thing the first years were talking about were flying lessons, which were to be held that Thursday. Some were groaning because we would be taking them with the Gryffindors.

"Guess what." Altaira asks, right when Anastasia gets to the table for breakfast.

"If it's about flying lessons, I don't want to hear it."

"No, no. It's about Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Remember? I don't think either of us had him yet. My friend told me he's a complete airhead. Totally obsessed with himself."

"Really? But that's not good? How are we going to defend ourselves?"

"What's out there to defend ourselves from?"

"Oh, I don't know, but it's always a good idea to at least know how. Maybe if he's really bad we can ask one of the other teachers for help, or at least spend some of our free time researching monsters and how to defeat them."

"Are you one of those people who's always looking over their shoulder, thinking something's behind them? All paranoid and all?"

"No, I just like to be prepared. 'Hope for the best, but expect the worst.' That's my motto."

"Ok, just don't go all paranoid on me."

"Ok, I won't 'Go all paranoid.'" Altaira giggled. "What."

"Oh, it's just funny, the way you say it."

"Hey, sis, guess what." Draco came up.

"What, Draco?"

"I'm the new Slytherin seeker."

"Really? What did you do, get Daddy to buy your way in? I've seen you on a broom, I bet Anastasia's better than you."

"No, I didn't buy my way onto the team, but Father did donate Nimbus two thousand and ones for the whole team."

"So you bought your way in?" says Anastasia

"Didn't I just say that I didn't? Or are you deaf?"

"Yeah you didn't buy your way in; Daddy did." replies Altaira. Draco doesn't reply and storms away, a scowl on his face.

"He really is easy to get worked up."

"I know, it's annoying, but fun to."

"Right, let's get to Defense against the Dark Arts. We've got it first." They rushed to the class.

"Ah, welcome class." says Professor Lockhart when the whole class has been seated. He gave a rather large, flashy smile. "We will begin this class with a quiz to see what you all remember from my books."

Altaira raises her hand, "Sir, you don't expect us to have read all your books by now, have you?"

"No, no. It's just to see what you've already read and retained." He then started passing papers out.

"Why doesn't he use magic? All the other Professors do, to pass out papers and trivial things like that." Anastasia whispers to Altaira.

"Search me." she says with a shrug.

The quiz was completely insane. The most idiotic questions were on there and they were all about Professor Lockhart. Anastasia thought it was complete rubbish, as did mostly everyone else in the class. But, she resigned to filling out the quiz, remembering the answers because she had read the complete series on the train ride there but thought it had been a complete waste of time.

_Mum always said I had a knack for remembering useless things. _She thought, thinking about the one time her mother actually read her report card. "Trigonometry lessons? Have your teachers gone mad? No one needs to know anything but the basics in Math and even then I think it would be a waste of time. Is this what you've been doing weekends, taking extra pointless lessons? Biology?" Her mother had gone on and on how she would never need any of those skills in her lifetime. Her mother then proceeded to tear up all the permission forms and requirement letters from her teachers. When the teachers asked if she would be taking the classes she somehow managed to get them to agree to let her take the summer courses without permission. That had also been the one of the last nights she went home when her mother was around.

She shook her head, _Focus, none of that matter anymore. You're here now._ Anastasia hated when she relived these memories, but she turned her focus back to the quiz. It was almost comical, the only thing that kept Anastasia from laughing aloud was the fact that this was their _teacher! _She knew right there and then that it was going to be a long year. A _really _long year.

"Tut, tut. Hardly any could answer one or two of these correctly. I see that we have a long year ahead of us. Oh, Miss Weasley knew what my secret ambition was. No one knew what my favorite color was… except for Miss Anastasia. I'm sorry you didn't sign a last name. Wait, she got every single one of these questions right, good for you." He gave a bright smile to the class.

"Excuse me, Professor, but how is learning about you teaching us how to defend ourselves?" asks Ginny, not bothering to raise her hand.

"Good question, my dear. Now as you all know I'm quite talented. So if you know what makes me be so successful all of you can follow in my footsteps!"

"But, how is knowing that your favorite color is _lilac_ going to protect us from, say, a werewolf?" someone else piped up.

"Now, let's get on with the lesson." Professor Lockhart continued, seemingly oblivious to the question. "What is in this cage can be part of your worst nightmares. All I ask is that you don't scream, and remember that no harm can come as long as I am here." With that, he swept the cover off the cage revealing … spiders?

One of the students in the front had to disguise a laugh and went into a coughing fit.

"Yes?" Professor Lockhart asked.

"Well, they're just spiders and you can make any spider that big using an enlarging charm."

"Yes," his eyes seemed to twinkle, "But these aren't any normal spiders, they are acromantula!"

"But, Sir! Aren't those extremely dangerous? They like to eat human flesh!" Altaira jumped up as she was saying this.

"Yes, of course, but right now they are completely harmless, young ones they are."

"Sir! Even the young ones are dangerous." Altaira seemed to be panicking.

""Not at all, see?" He opened the cage door and the five spiders quickly scuttled out. Altaira screamed, but the spiders acted strangely, going in a straight line they went right out the door.

Some unknown force seemed to take control of Anastasia. She went after them, they sped up but they weren't hard to follow. All she had to do was follow the screams. She felt like they were running away from something, or maybe to it. She followed them to the edge of the forest, when a large figure blocked her.

"Now where are you going?" the gigantic man asked.

"I was following the acromantula!"

"Acromantula? In the castle? Never." but he was looking over his shoulder, as if worried about someone.

"Professor Lockhart brought them in."

"Professor Lockhart? That fool! Who brings those critters into a school?"

"Yeah, but, um, who are you?"

"I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys."

"Nice to meet you."

"So why did you try and follow 'em?"

"Impulse."

"Well, you'd better get back ter the castle."

"Yeah, thanks, bye." Anastasia ran back to the castle, where everyone was still seated in class.

"Anastasia! You're back! Thank goodness you came to your senses before you caught up to them. They would have eaten you alive!"

"Not actually, I followed them all the way to the forest."

"You didn't go _in _did you? That's the _Forbidden Forest! _Did you?"

"No, Hagrid blocked my way."

"Thank goodness." Then Professor Lockhart spoke up,

"See, completely harmless. Now I'd say class can be dismissed." The whole class gathered their things and fought to get out the door first.

"Completely harmless? The man's mental." Altaira said as soon as they rounded a corner. "And after what I heard happened in the second year's class with the Cornish pixies you'd think the man had some sense smacked into him. Favorite color's lilac, complete rubbish. I think your idea about studying outside of class could be useful. If we have him for more than a year we'll fail our O.W.L's."

"Yeah, how could he be a Professor? We should ask someone about that."

"Why don't we talk to that Hagrid? If he doesn't turn you in for being outside the school during class he can't be too bad."

"Sure, I guess. I mean we don't even know if he's a professor."

"Draco says that Harry and his friends are friends with Hagrid, why don't you ask if we could come the next time they visit."

Anastasia let out a sign, "I guess."

"Anyways, what in the world made you run after those bloody spiders?

"Impulse." Anastasia didn't really know though, whatever gave her the idea and led her to carry it out was now tugging at the edge of her mind though… making her curious.


	3. The Whomping Willow's second attack

The week had been exhausting, from Professor Lockhart's classes, he's finally had _some _sense knocked into him though the classes were extremely boring, to the point of pain sometimes, and then Draco's constant presence with amateur insults, to our first flying lessons being postponed (Anastasia seemed to think she was going to make a fool out of herself) and everybody complaining about it in the common room. That got so annoying that she was driven to the Library, where she started a discussion with the librarian about whether or not the Library should provide muggle books.

Professor Lockhart's classes have been the most tiring, if only because they are completely pointless and feel like someone's throwing a bucket of water on your face saying 'Yeah, there really are people like this in the world, what are you going to do about it?'. It's so frustrating, and Anastasia felt she has no idea or power about what to do about it. She went down to that little cottage by the forest once, but since he didn't answer she thought that either Hagrid doesn't live there or he wasn't there and then this low, deep growl and bark scared the living daylights out of her.

_Good thing Altaira wasn't ther_e, she thought, _I would've had to explain my phobia of dogs and good memories do not reside there_.

She went back to the castle and, since it was far past nightfall, the common room was nearly empty. And to Anastasia's lucky surprise Draco was nowhere in sight. She didn't know that his friends had been bugging him about his bugging her and he had made it a point to avoid her, but if she had she would have gone to his friends and begged them to keep bugging him so he would stop bugging her and Altaira. Or maybe she wouldn't and just be happy for the bit of peace.

Anastasia went over to the only comfy chairs in front of the fire, for some reason most people avoided them, and opened the first of the books she borrowed from the library. She had been going to sleep later and later, having started having nightmares about her 'home'. So, to pass the time she would read until she was so tired she had to practically drag herself up to her dorm.

"You really need to get more sleep, Anastasia." Altaira said the next morning over breakfast.

"No, it's fine." Anastasia said, trying to cover up a yawn.

"Well, how are you going to pass classes when you're about to pass out."

"Seriously, its fine." she said again, and attempted to cover up another yawn.

"Seriously, you look like you're about to pass out, like a zombie or something. And if you're like this for our first flying lesson you're going to fall off your broom."

"I thought that was postponed," she gave another yawn, "and anyways, isn't that a little stereotypical? A witch flying on a broomstick?"

"Yeah, but it's for what people call 'the greatest wizarding game'. And they gave a new date, it's in three days. I thought you heard, and they're not going to postpone this one."

"What happened to postpone the last one?"

"I don't know, but Madame Hooch was said to be in the Hospital. And Madame Pomfrey won't tell anyone what happened. All the quidditch fanatics have been asking what happened and if she'll be better by the first match."

"Ok, let's not be late for our 'lesson'."

"I don't know if you can call it that."

"I know, isn't this terrible?"

"All we've been doing since the Acromantula is read from his stupid books."

"Yeah, and there's no way he did all that. For more reasons than one, like facts. If you take facts that have been proven, like that vampires can only drink blood and if they couldn't they would die, and size them up to his books they would fall apart. He says that after he 'fought' this vampire that it could only eat lettuce. The vampire would have died, not to mention that it's impossible!'

"Why can't half the wizards who read the books figure it out?"

"I bet their all mesmerized by his 'five-time winner of _Witch Weekly's _smile'." Altaira smiled and batted her eyelashes.

"Why don't we get the whole class to challenge him? We could bring books from the library and prove his books wrong."

"Oh, I don't know. Some people wouldn't want to go against their teacher."

"He's barley a teacher and even if it doesn't work it'll be fun to see his reactions."

"Fine, but we've got to plan this out." So that gave Anastasia another reason to stay up late, spending hours at a time in Library. For the next three days she was lucky to get a few hours' sleep. So, of course, when the first flying lesson came around she was practically asleep on her feet.

"Hello, students! I'm Oliver Wood and Harry and I are filling in for Madame Hooch for your lesson." said a boy when all the first-year Slytherins and Gryffindors arrived. "I'm the Gryffindor keeper and Harry's the best seeker Hogwarts has seen in a century."

"Course he is." Altaira whispered to Anastasia. She had to cover up a laugh, she had been thinking the same thing.

"Right," Harry interrupted Wood from continuing about the Gryffindor team. "You'll all need to stand next to a broomstick." Everyone hurried to stand next to a broom that was lying on the ground. And all the Slytherins stood opposite the Gryffindors.

"Hey!" A now familiar drawl came from near the castle. "Professor Snape thought that this lesson should also have a Slytherin teacher, so I volunteered. I am a great seeker."

"In your dreams, Malfoy." Wood called.

"I've got the note that states it, Wood."

"Course he would bring a note." he said under his breath. "Fine, come on."

"Ok, so everyone should hold out their arm above the broom and say 'up', alright." Harry continued, ignoring Malfoy.

_I bet he didn't even want to teach this class and wants to get it over with. _Anastasia thought. She held out her arm and said up, but it was rather slurred with exhaustion and the broom rose only half way.

"Oh, come on. Up!" she then said with more control over her voice, and the broom rose with such force that she stumbled back a bit. After a good ten minutes, everyone had their broom in their hand and both Wood and Malfoy showed us how to mount our broom.

"Alright, when I say go I want everyone to kick off the ground, I'll give further instructions when we're all in the air." Everyone kicked off when he said go, but a few only stayed high enough that their feet didn't touch the ground, a few fell right back down to earth and a few stayed a few feet in the air. Altaira and Anastasia both stayed in the air and had to wait a good twenty minutes before everyone else stayed up. Anastasia had already started to doze a few times already and Altaira had to call out before she fell off or veered off.

"Good." Now we'll practice some simple motions with the brooms. I want you all to line up!" It took a while for everyone to line up. "Ok now I want you to fly forward, one at a time."

"Can we race?" called someone at the end of the line, one of the kids who had stayed a few feet above the ground.

"No. There will be no racing." Harry said.

"What? Why don't we let them race, Potter?" called Malfoy. "I bet I could beat you!" Everyone was watching them as Malfoy circled Harry and Wood tried to stop him taunting Harry. Harry looked as if he wanted to reply, but also just wanted to leave, he also had his had clenched so tight around the handle of his broom that they were white. Anastasia was the only one not watching, she had dozed off again and her broom was slowly making its way to the right, gaining speed as it went along.

"Anastasia!" She woke with a start and quickly straightened out her broom. She was far away from the rest of the group by then.

"Get away from there! That's the Whomping Willow!" Harry called out. Malfoy was still circling oblivious to the danger Anastasia was in. She was still half asleep.

"What?" she said, not nearly loud enough for them to hear. Then a branch whipped across her face, efficiently waking her up and leaving a shallow gouge under her eye. She regained control of the broom, as it had started to float off again, and pushed it a few feet to the right as a thick branch came down right where she had been.

_That could have taken my head off. _She thought, but she didn't have time to keep thinking as that move had brought her closer to the tree, and closer to thicker braches. Some instinctive survival mode seemed to click on in her. She speed forward and backward and side to side, losing any sense of direction, only thinking of where branches were and where they weren't, trying to get to the latter. When finally she went forward and the air was clear she let out a sigh of relief. She had almost been pummeled or whacked out of the air not less than a few times and didn't come out unscratched. She flew over to the group, whom all landed, and did a quick head count, looking for Altaira. She wasn't there.

"Merlin, are you ok?" Wood asked the second she landed. "It's a good thing you had the sense not to land, it would have been harder to evade attacks."

"Fine." I say, "Just a lot of little cuts and a few bruises."

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone fly like that! I don't know if Harry could have flown like that!" Wood said, oblivious to the fact that she was _not _fine. The blood coming from the hundreds of cuts was coating her like a second skin, as it had already been smudged over her robes.

"Naw that was nothing. I could have done that in my sleep." Draco said, also oblivious to that fact.

"If you were looking to be knocked out of the air." Harry said. "And you are _not _fine. You're completely covered in blood! We need to get you to the hospital wing!"

"Where's Altaira?" She asked, "I'm fine, it probably looks worse than it is." She took a step forward, but wobbled a little and had to grab Draco's arm for support. The lack of sleep adding to the effect.

"I sent her up to get Madame Pomfrey, and I good thing too. I think you're getting dizzy from loss of blood." said Draco, he looked as if he wanted to shrug her hand off his shoulder, as it was now covered in blood.

"No, no I think it's clotting. I'm fine."

"We thought you were going to be thrown off your broom. I've had experience with the Willow, it doesn't like things to go near it." said Harry, he seemed to grimace at the memory of his and Ron's arrival. Anastasia was starting to feel weird by that point, and no one noticed that a rash had appeared on her arm.

"Hence the 'Whomping' part of the name." Wood added.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Draco.

"What are you actually worried about someone other than yourself for once?" asked Wood.

"What? She's my little sister's friend, I'll be hearing about it for ages if she's hurt."

"Right." some other person in the group said. By now most everyone had their wands out.

"Um, maybe I should get to the hospital." She stuck both arms out just to help her stand upright. "Is it me or is the ground spinning?" By then she was completely covered in blood, but it was just because of how many cuts she had, none of them were too deep, in her opinion. A few of her classmates looked sick and one Slytherin had passed out at the sight of so much blood.

"Come on, let's get you to the hospital." Just then Altaira came running down, with Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape following.

"Merlin! Are you alright, Dear? We need to get you to the Hospital now!" And with that they rushed me into the hospital wing. I could hear the argument continue, the Slytherins siding with Malfoy and the Gryffindors siding with Wood and Potter.

_When did I start thinking of him as Potter and not Harry? _She thought. _I don't even know them. Maybe I'll go over to the Gryffindor table tomorrow. _She had thought they were father away from the hospital, but she seemed to blink and then they were there_._

"Come over here and lie down. We need to clean out those cuts." She went to get bandages. "You must either be a great flyer or very lucky to fly through the Whomping Willow with minimal damage." _Minimal damage?_ Anastasia thought. "I remember the last student who went too close to that tree. Bloody mess. It shouldn't still be on the grounds."

"Ok." she replied, too dizzy to really answer with something else.

"Now take this, you need to get some sleep. Your friend told me about you staying up and that that's how you got close to the tree in the first place. I don't think you had to lose too much blood to get this dizzy. If you lost only a little more I believe you would have passed out in the grounds." Anastasia drank the spoonful of medicine Madame Pomfrey was holding out, not really comprehending what she was saying. "Professor Snape, could you please get clean sheets out of that cabinet? I don't want this girl sleeping in her own blood." That was the last thing Anastasia heard before she fell into a deep sleep and she thought _Wow I must be losing a lot of blood for it to soak the sheets_.

She woke up with eyes right in her face, she almost screamed. But the eyes backed away and a hand covered her mouth before she did.

"Sorry about that!" Altaira said when I pushed her hand away.

"Almost gave me a heart attack, you did."

"Sorry."

"No, its ok, just if I'm in the Hospital asleep again, don't put your face right in front of mine."

"Sure."

"Did you cut your hair?" she asked.

"No. See I can control the length of my hair." And as Anastasia was watching Altaira's hair grew to be extremely long, brushing the floor, to extremely short, could have been considered a buzz-cut, and back to normal.

"That's freakish. But in an extremely cool way."

"Yeah, I can also change my facial features, my mom says I'm an albino metamorphmagus, one of a kind." she looked rather proud. "I just can't change the coloring of my hair all that much, like other metamorphous, and my eyes will only be reddish-pink or near white."

"Has anyone else come to visit me?"

"I'm not sure."

"Ok, I was just wondering."

"Madame Pomfrey said you could leave when you woke up, but only after she's had a word with you. I bet you're hungry. You slept all yesterday and today, it's almost dinner."

"Seriously?" She almost jumped out of the bed, missing a meal always freaked her out.

"Oh and Professor Snape wants to talk to you."

"I bet I'm in trouble."

"No, why would you be."

"Right, but still. How much work is piled up for me?"

"Really? If you weren't such a fantastic flyer you could be dead and your thinking of schoolwork?"

"I'm not that good a flyer. Come on, I am starving."

"Sure, but Professor Snape said he wanted to talk to you right when you were healthy enough to leave the hospital and you still need to talk to Madame Pomfrey ."

"Ok, well could you go get her?"

"Oh, sure." With that she rushed out of the room.

When they came back Madame Pomfrey said "Awake I see. Now we need to talk about why you had such a drastic reaction to the willow."

"If it's because I'm not sleeping-"

"No, no. It's not that, but I should have a conversation with you about that." She gave Anastasia a stern look.

"What is it then?"

"I do believe you're allergic to the willow. I would like to test you for other allergies as well."

"Now?"

"Not now. I'm sure you're hungry. But we will need to make an appointment. Now you may go." She made a small hand gesture as well.

"We need to go the common room first."

"Thank you."

Anastasia and Altaira quickly left.

"We need to go talk to Professor Snape now."

"Why?"

"He wanted to talk to you."

"Fine." We walked to Professor Snape's office, Altaira talking about what it looked like to see Anastasia fly through all those swinging branches.

"The whole school will be talking about it." she concluded once they reached the office.

They knocked and Professor Snape said "Come in." on the first knock.

"You wanted to speak with me, Professor?" Anastasia asked once they were in front of his desk. His office had a few more jars of weird floating things than the last time she had been in there. She really wanted to know what they were.

"Yes. I wanted to speak to you about your flying." He paused, as if to wait for her to say something, but she didn't. "I would like you to join the Slytherin team. The team voted and after Mr. Malfoy described how you flew and would like you to be on the team. You do not have to accept, and I will give you time to think about it. You would also have to try out to see what position you should take, and the whole team has agreed that they would step down if it is their place you should be best suited for. You may leave."

"Thank you, Professor." she said and turned around with Altaira following.

"You're going to accept, right?" she asked right after turning the first corner.

"I don't know. I really think that was just a lot of luck."

"Come on, you have to. Let's get to the common room."

"Really? I'm starving and the Great Hall is just down that way."

"Fine, you do need to eat." They walked to the Great Hall in silence.

"Do you know how awesome it would be if you took Draco's spot?"

"I don't really want to take anyone's spot."

"Good, because you're not taking my spot, especially since it was probably beginners luck." Anastasia sighs as she has become very familiar with that voice.

XXXX

**Ok, could someone please review? I think that this chapter had been too fast, so could anyone tell me and maybe give me some ideas on how to slow things down or your opinion on how I could improve the story? Thanks.**


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